Criticism of the Swedish Police Authority for taking someone into custody without legal grounds when providing judicial assistance

Summary of the decision: The police were requested to provide judicial assistance to ensure that an individual attended a doctor’s appointment pursuant to Section 7 of the Swedish Act (SFS 1991:2041) on Separate Pre-Sentencing Reports in Criminal Cases. To this end, the individual was collected and held in a police custody suite overnight. The following morning, the individual was transported to the location where the doctor was to examine them.

The Parliamentary Ombudsman notes that there is no legal provision that expressly allows the police to take someone into custody to ensure that they keep such a doctor’s appointment as was the case here. The Parliamentary Ombudsman states that, when providing judicial assistance, it may be acceptable to detain the individual for a certain period of time while awaiting and during transportation. However, the deprivation of liberty involved in locking someone in a police cell for an entire night is such a restriction of fundamental rights and freedoms that the measure must be expressly provided for in law.

According to the Parliamentary Ombudsman, there were therefore no legal grounds on which to take the individual into custody in this manner in conjunction with providing judicial assistance. The Parliamentary Ombudsman takes a grave view of the fact that the measure was taken regardless, and criticises the Swedish Police Authority accordingly.